More than a month ago, I wrote to say this digital switch had finally been a non-event. It should be since, after all, the camera does not matter.

Now that I dabble somewhat into portraiture, it appears I overlooked one aspect in my lens choice. Minimum focus distance. No way to frame a really tight portrait with what I currently have. Of course, forget about a close-up on eyes. I now understand why so many people use macro lenses for portraiture. I verge on the slow side sometimes.

I have two appropriate portrait lenses: the 85/1.8 and 135/2.8 SF. The 135 is a good lens and the 85 a very good one. The 135 is not quite sharp wide open. The 85 neither but is very good at f/2.8 and that’s all I really need.

The way I am currently thinking is to replace the 135 with a longish macro lens. Main current candidate is the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro. All the reports I have been able to find are very positive. It allows extreme close up and would open new possibilities even in landscape/nature.

Another candidate is to replace both the 85 and the 135 with a Canon 90mm TSE. It has a quite short minimum focusing distance and is so sharp it would still be a killer with the 1.4x tele-converter. But then I’d end up with an f/4 135mm and that’s not really what I want.

Still thinking about it all.

Stephane :: Jun.27.2007 :: Gear :: No Comments »